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This is to be applied to the prophets and priests alone; they not only corrupted the people by their bad example, but also shook off every fear of God, and by their impostures and false boasting took away every regard and respect for the teaching of the true prophets. He then says, that they healed to no purpose, or with levity or slightness, ¹⁷⁵¹⁷⁵     The words על נקלה — “with what is worthless,“ or base, or contemptible, are rendered, “ἐξουθενοῦντες — regarding as nothing,” or despising, by the Septuagint; “cum ignominia — with reproach” or contempt, by the Vulgate and Arabic; “illusione — by illusion,” by the Syriac; and “with false words,“ by the Targum. The same phrase occurs in Jeremiah 8:11. The whole verse is there omitted by the Septuagint; the Vulgate has “ad ignominiam — to reproach;” the Arabic, “in jocos — for sport; the Syriac, “nugis — with trifles;” but the Targum is the same as here. None give the same version but the last. In the Complutensian Edition, which has this verse in Jeremiah 8:11, the Greek version is evidently a version of the Vulgate.
   The idea of “slightly,“ or “superficially,“ as rendered by Blayney, is not countenanced by any of the foregoing versions, nor can the original words bear this meaning. The word נקלה, is found as a Niphal participle, and applied to man, as a despised, contemptible, or worthless being, — 1 Samuel 18:23; Proverbs 12:9; Isaiah 3:5; Isaiah 16:14. But here it refers to the means used for healing, which, according to all the versions, was something contemptible, worthless, useless, and which is afterwards named, being no more than saying, Peace, peace, when in fact there was no peace.
   And healed have they the bruise Of the daughter of my people with what is worthless, Saying, “Peace, peace;” and there was no peace.
   — Ed. the wound of the people He says, by way of concession, that they had healed the wounds of the people: but it was no cure, when the evil was increasing. They were like the unskillful, who by rashly applying false remedies, cause inflammation, even when the disease is not serious; or like those who are only bent on easing pain, and cause the increase of the disease within, which is the more dangerous as it is more hidden. This is not to heal, but to kill. But the Prophet, as I have said, concedes to them the work of healing, and then states the issue, — that they were executioners and not physicians. They have healed, he says, the wound of my people: He takes the words, as it were, from their mouth, “Ye are verily good physicians! for by your flatteries ye have soothed my people: there was need not only of sharp medicine to stimulate and to cause pain, but also of caustics and of amputations; but ye have only applied lenients. This is your way of healing! ye have thus healed the wound of my people, even by plasters and ointments to drive inward the disease; but what has been the effect?”

He then immediately shews what sort of healing it was: It was saying, Peace, peace The evil we know is an old one, common almost to all ages; and no wonder, for no one wishes otherwise than to please himself; and what we observe daily as to the ailments of the body, is the same as to the diseases of the soul. No sick person willingly submits to the advice of his physician, if he prohibits the use of those things which he desires: “What am I then to do? it were better to die than to follow this advice.” And then, if the physician bids him to take a bitter dose, he will say, “I would rather a hundred times endure any pain than to drink that draught.” And when it comes to bleeding and other more painful operations, as caustics and things of this kind, O the sick man can stand it no longer, and wishes almost any evil to his physicians. What then experience proves to be true as to bodily diseases, is also true, as I have said, as to the vices of the mind. All wish to deceive themselves; and thus it happens that they wish for such prophets as promise them large vintages and an abundant harvest, according to what is said by the Prophet Micah:

“Behold,” says God, “ye wish to have prophets who will speak to you of rich provisions and of every kind of affluence; and ye do not wish them to prophesy evil; ye would not have them to denounce on you the punishment which you fully deserve.” (Micah 2:11)

As, then, the despisers of God wished to be soothed by flatteries, and reject the best and the most salutary remedies, hence God has from the beginning given loose reins to Satan, and hence impostors have gone forth, whose preaching has been, Peace, peace; but to no purpose; for there is nothing real in such healing, for the Lord says, there is no peace

The bolder any one is who professes to heal, if he be unskillful, the more disastrous will be the issue. Hence the Prophet shews that the cause of the extreme calamity of the Jews was, because they were deceived by their own priests and teachers. He does not at the same time, as it has been elsewhere observed, excuse them, as though the whole blame belonged to their false teachers. For how was it that the false prophets thus fascinated them? Even because they knowingly and willfully destroyed themselves; for they would not receive honest and skillful physicians: it was therefore necessary to give them up to such as killed them. It follows —

Jeremiah turns now his discourse to the whole people. In the last verse he reproved only the priests and the prophets; he now speaks more generally, and says, that they had put off all shame. “Behold,” he says, “they are sufficiently proved guilty, their wickedness is manifest, and yet there is no shame. Their disgrace is visible to heaven and earth; angels and all mortals are witnesses of their corruption; but they have such a meretricious front that they are touched by no sense of shame.” He means, in these words, that the wickedness of the people was past all remedy; for they had arrived to that degree of stupor, of which Paul speaks, when he calls those ἀπηλγηκότας, who were obstinate in their vices, who saw no difference between right and wrong, between white and black. (Ephesians 4:19.)

This, then, is what the Prophet means when he says, Have they been ashamed? But a question is much more emphatical, than if it was a simple reprobation or affirmation. They have not been even ashamed, he says. In their very shame, they knew not what it was to be touched by any shamefacedness. This may be classed with those reproofs, by which they had not been subdued; as though he had said, “Efforts having been made to expose their effrontery, in not humbling themselves under the hand of God; they shall therefore fall among the fallen;” that is, “I will dispute no longer with them, nor contend in words, but will execute on them my judgment.” Fall, then, shall they among the fallen; as though he had said, “I have more than sufficiently denounced war on them: had they been healable it would have availed to their conversion, that they had been so often warned; and still more, that I have so sharply stimulated them to come to me: but I will now no more employ words, on the contrary, I will execute my vengeance, so that the calamity which they have derived may devour them.” ¹⁷⁶¹⁷⁶     The Syriac is the only version that puts the first verb in an interrogatory form. “They have been confounded,“ is the Septuagint and Vulgate; and similar is the rendering of the Arabic and the Targum. The verb, taken literally, it being in Huphal, may be rendered, “They have been put to shame,“ or have been made to be ashamed; that is, they had been exposed to shame; but this shame they felt not, according to what follows. Their previous evils were enough to make them feel ashamed; but they had not that effect: hence entire ruin is denounced on them at the end of the verse. The rendering of the whole is as follows, —
   15. Exposed to shame have they been, Because abomination have they wrought: Neither with shame are they ashamed, Nor how to be abashed do they know; Therefore fall shall they with the fallen; At the time when I shall visit them, They shall perish, saith Jehovah.
   There is no necessity to make this verse and the 12th of chap. 8 (Jeremiah 8:12) the same in every particular, as Blayney attempts to do. Both passages are the same in meaning, with a little variety in some of the words. The particle גם, repeated, may be rendered by, either and nor. See Numbers 23:5. The verb הכליםis an infinitive Huphal. It is rendered as an infinitive by the Vulgate. “They shall perish,“ which is according to the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic, is literally, “They shall be made to stumble.” — Ed

They shall wholly fall, he says, in the day of their visitation From this second clause we understand more clearly what it is or what he means when he speaks of falling among the fallen, which is, that they should wholly fall, when God would come as it were with a drawn sword to destroy them, having been wearied with giving them so many warnings.